Manfrotto Befree Advanced tripod review

As with the perfect camera bag, the perfect tripod is like the holy grail to us landscape photographers. No matter how many we buy, there is always some kind of compromise when it comes to weight, stability, hight, features, etc. As soon as I realised that there was no single tripod for all occasions, it became clear that just like the camera bag, I might need one specifically designed for the type of photography I intend to do.

Although I’m pretty happy with my bigger, heavier tripod I use for landscape photography (see my latest camera gear post here), for a few reasons, I’ve never really been fully content with any of the smaller, lightweight tripods I’ve owned. So, when Manfrotto reached out and asked me to review their Befree Advanced Twist Carbon tripod (MKBFRTC4-BH), I decided to take them up on their offer.

To clarify and be completely transparent, Manfrotto sent me this tripod for free in return for sharing my thoughts, but I’m under no obligation to say only positive things. I would not have accepted the offer if there was any expectation of me to be anything but honest and fair.

One final point before we get stuck in. This is not a scientific review but merely my thoughts and opinion about what I need from a tripod and how the Befree Advanced performed after spending some time with it while taking photos in the field. Other photographers may have different priorities and expectations regarding what they need from a tripod, and I always suggest doing your own research before deciding.

I don’t often travel with a tripod but one of the main reasons I need a smaller, lightweight tripod is for my photography in London. I spend a lot of time photographing the cityscape and carrying a large, heavy tripod around the city isn’t practical at all. So, to give this tripod a proper test out in the field, I brought it along on one of my London photography trips to take a few long exposure images for my black and white Timeless City project.

Befree Advanced twist carbon tripod specifications

Before we start, I’ll quickly list the technical specs from the Manfrotto website. I won’t list everything, but I have included the specs important to me and what I am looking for as a landscape photographer.

Maximum and minimum height

When it comes to design, the maximum and minimum height of a tripod is incredibly important to me when photographing in and around London. Where tripods are allowed, I still need to be mindful of other people and I’m often looking for ways to use the tripod for stability but remain out of the way as best I can. To avoid the tripod using too much floor space, I will often avoid extending the legs and rest it on a wall. In this scenario, the walls can often be narrow meaning I can’t lower the tripod too much by spreading its legs. With the Manfrotto Befree Advanced having a minimum height of 41cm, it means I can place the tripod on a wall without it being too high to use comfortably.

On the other hand, the maximum height is equally important, not because it has to be as high as possible but because it must strike the right balance. When using a lightweight tripod, I’m not looking for the highest possible vantage point, I’m looking to ensure I can extend the tripod high enough to be comfortable for me but not so high that I’m carrying access weight or bulk to achieve a height I don’t really need. The Befree Advanced strikes the right balance for me. I’m not a tall person but with only a slight upward tilt of my rear screen, I can comfortably use the tripod at its maximum height of 127cm (without the centre collum extended).

Weight and stability

At only 1.25 kg (head included) the Befree Advanced is light enough to hook to my camera bag and carry around comfortably all day, but without the weight, I was a little concerned it might not be stable enough when photographing in windy conditions.

While out in London testing the tripod, I stopped along the River Thames to take a long exposure photo of the O2 Arena (formally the Millennium Dome). The wind had picked up, making shake-free long-exposure photos a little tricky. So, this was a good opportunity to test the tripod’s stability. The wind was too strong for me to get sharp photos with the centre collum extended and to be fair, most tripods would have struggled in those conditions but keeping the centre column retracted (as I normally do), my long-exposure photos were perfectly sharp.

So overall, from a stability point of view, it performed well considering how light it is which is a big tick in the box for this tripod.

Opening and closing the tripod

It’s important to me that my tripods open and close with minimum effort and fuss and the Manfrotto Befree Advanced Twist Carbon Fiber tripod has a quick and comfortable twist lock mechanism which works well. It feels smooth, does not require too much effort and I could extend or close the tripod quickly and easily.

My only concern and recommendation for improvement here is that to extend the lower/smaller leg section, I had to untwist the lock and then pull on the rubber feet to extend the leg. Not a huge issue but the rubber feet don’t feel particularly solid and they do twist quite easily. So over time, I feel I could end up loosening or even pulling one of them out completely. I would prefer something a little more solid to grip as I pull the lower leg out and I feel the rubber feet could be better engineered so as not to give the impression I might eventually lose one.

It’s a small area for improvement in an overall positive experience with the twist lock leg mechanism.

Ball head and RC2 mount

Starting with the ball head, I was quite happy with how well this performed. In the description on Manfrotto’s website, they clearly state that this tripod is well-suited for mirrorless cameras, and I think that’s a fair statement. The Advanced 494 aluminium Centre Ball Head might not necessarily support a heavier SLR or medium format body and lens combo, but it’s clear to me that this is not the tripod for those photographers. This tripod is perfect for mirrorless cameras and supports my Fujifilm XT5 and lens with ease.

There are three knobs to use for adjusting the ball head. First, a panoramic knob which allows the head to pan 360 degrees while keeping the horizon flat. Although this is a feature I use often when taking panoramic landscape images, I haven’t taken any with this tripod yet, but I still used it to adjust my composition and it worked absolutely
fine.

The other two knobs are situated together with the smaller friction knob situated inside the main sphere lock. Ball heads can be tricky to use when trying to carefully fine-tune a composition by a millimetre here or there, but by including a separate friction lock, Manfrotto has made the life of a landscape photographer much easier. The main sphere lock felt solid and held the camera in place comfortably. I had no concerns and would trust my camera gear to stay put when the ball head is locked.

A small concern is the plastic used for the ball head knobs. I appreciate Manfrotto's need to find ways to keep weight down, but I’ve had plastic ball head knobs fail on me in the past so I’m hyper-sensitive to the materials used. Also, the plastic feel isn’t particularly comfortable to use and makes using the tripod feel a little on the cheap side. It’s far from the most expensive tripod out there and it certainly doesn’t position itself as such but for a £279 tripod, a small rubber grip on the ball head knobs would go a long way to improving the way it feels to use.

The Befree Advanced twist carbon tripod comes with Manfrotto’s RC2 quick-release plate system. The quick-release system works well and with the camera mounted, the camera felt safe and secure.

Like many landscape photographers who use a tripod, I have always used an Arca-Swiss tripod mount and along with that, I use an L-bracket to help me quickly switch between portrait and landscape orientation. This is where things got a little tricky with the RC2 system as it wasn’t compatible with my Arca-Swiss L-bracket and at time of writing, Manfrotto doesn’t seem to offer an L-bracket that works with their RC2 quick-release system.

The good news is Manfrotto offer a solution to my problem with their Arca-type compatible Top Lock Travel Quick Release Adaptor, the bad news is that anyone looking to use an Arca-Swiss L-bracket with this tripod will need to pay an additional £37 to buy the adapter. The adapter worked exactly as expected and once mounted, I had no issues integrating the tripod into my usual workflow.

So, at least Manfrotto has a solution and although I’m coming at this from a landscape photographer’s point of view, I do think it would make sense that Manfrotto included this adapter with the tripod or even offered the Arca-Swiss compatible head as an option when purchasing the Befree Advanced Twist.

Overall, the Manfrotto Befree Advanced twist carbon tripod feels good to use and performs very well. Any complaints or concerns I have are a bit nitpicky and easily solved in a future revision.

Below are two of the photos I took while out in London taking long-exposure, black-and-white photos using the Manfrotto Befree Advanced Twist Carbon tripod.

Would I recommend this tripod? Well, tripods are such a subjective bit of kit and what’s good for me might not be good for others. Having said that, if you want to travel light but still have a sturdy tripod on hand to take landscape, cityscape or travel photos, I recommend you take a good look at the Befree Advanced twist when choosing your next tripod. It may well be the tripod you’ve always needed.

I hope you found that useful and if you have any questions, leave a comment below or send me a message using the form on my contact page.

Until next time

Trevor